Johann Strauss II, the
most famous and enduringly successful nineteenth century light music composer,
was born in Vienna on 25 October 1825. Building upon the firm musical
foundations laid by his father, Johann Strauss I (1804-1849) and Joseph Lanner
(1801-1843), the younger Johann (along with his brothers, Josef and Eduard)
achieved so high a development of the classical Viennese waltz that it became
as much a feature of the concert hall as of the ballroom. For more than half a
century Johann II captivated not only Vienna but also the whole of Europe and
America with his abundantly tuneful waltzes, polkas, quadrilles and marches.
The appeal of his music bridged all social strata, and his genius was revered
by such masters as Verdi, Brahms and Richard Strauss. The thrice-married
"Waltz King" later turned his attention to the composition of
operetta, and completed 16 stage works (among them Die Fledermaus, Eine
Nacht in Venedig and Der Zigeunerbaron)besides more than 500
orchestral compositions - including the most famous of all waltzes, The Blue
Danube (1867). Johalm Strauss II died in Vienna on 3 June 1899.

The Marco Polo Strauss
Edition, from which these recordings were selected, is a milestone in recording
history, presenting, for the first time ever, the entire orchestral output of
the "Waltz King". Despite their supremely high standard of musical
invention, the majority of the compositions have never before been commercially
recorded and have been painstakingly assembled from archives around the world.
All performances featured in this series are complete and, wherever possible,
the works are played in their original instrumentation as conceived by the
"master orchestrator" himself, Johann Strauss II.

[1] Der Zigeunerbaron
(The Gypsy Baron) Overture
During November 1882,
the German-Hungarian journalist and author Ignaz Schnitzer (1839-1921)
submitted an operetta libretto for Johann Strauss's consideration. Nothing came
of this particular project, but on 31 January 1883 Strauss informed Schnitzer
that while he considered the plot of the delivered libretto too
"thin",he hoped to receive a more suitable book from him.

The early days of
February 1883 found Johann once again in Pest to conduct further performances
of Der lustige Krieg: once more, Adèle accompanied him. Strauss probably
made initial contact with Jókai during this visit, and discussed with him the
possibility of a joint theatrical project. It is known that during November
1883 - at the very latest - Strauss confirmed his willingness to write the
music for a libretto based on Jókai's novel, Saffi. There was agreement,
too, regarding the title for the planned opera (Der Zigeunerbaron)and
that Jókai would send German text in prose form to Schnitzer in Vienna who
would turn them into rhyming verse. From documentary evidence recently
uncovered by Professor Dr Eberhard Würzl for his article "Neues zum
'Zigeunerbaron': Eine Dokumentation seiner Entstehung" (New Information
about 'Der Zigeunerbaron': A Documentation of its Genesis), published in
the Österreichische Musikzeitschrift (1995, Volume 7), it is clear that
Jókai played a far more active rôle in the development of Der Zigeunerbaron than
had hitherto been thought. He did not simply offer his novel Saffi (together
with a scenario of the first act) as the basis for Schnitzer's libretto, but he
supplied a complete libretto which Schnitzer adapted as necessary, in
consultation with the author. Jókai also created two additional humorous characters
(apparently Ottokar and Zsupán) not to be found in his novel. Furthermore, he
suggested original Hungarian musical motifs to Strauss, including one which is
to be heard in the Act 2 'Werberlied' ("Her die Hand").Strauss
himself, it seems, only embarked upon the composition of Der Zigeunerbaron during
February 1884, even though the Budapest press reported at this time that he had
just completed the composition of Act 1. Remarkably, the Waltz King made so
little headway with the composition that on 28 June 1884 Schnitzer wrote to
Jókai: "Strauss makes only little progress, and he does not want to commit
himself to complete the composition by the end of January [1885] … On Wednesday
I shall visit him at his estate - if he does not give me a binding undertaking
then, I should have - though with a heavy heart – to withdraw the entire thing
from him. In this case, perhaps Suppé would do the composition; he would at all
events give us the guarantee that the first performance could take place early
in February… I have told Strauss that further changes to the book will
absolutely not be made…".

Johann Strauss worked
on the score of Der Zigeunerbaron for longer than had hitherto been his
practice with stage works. During this period, the project changed from its
conception as an Hungarian comic opera into an Austro-Hungarian operetta. At
the operetta's opening night at the Theater an der Wien on 24 October 1885,
coincidentally the eve of the composer's 60th birthday, the Viennese public was
aware it had witnessed a masterpiece. In his assessment of the "great,
exceedingly splendid triumph" achieved by Der Zigeunerbaron at its
opening night, the critic for the Fremden-Blatt (25.10.1885) observed:
"The man who for decades has delighted the music-loving world through his
creations, appears now to have reached the zenith of his creative power". The
reviewer for the Morgen-Blatt (25.10.1885) was no less impressed by what he
had wih1essed: "The music by Johann Strauss brought surprises in many
respects. Firstly, it is certainly more carefully worked, more richly
instrumented and more significant in its style of construction than any of his
earlier stage works. Secondly, it makes a noticeable effort to grasp the style
of grand opera, which may perhaps have been brought about by the libretto… The
first finale, with its great tension, the energetic build-up and the effective
use of all the colours in the musical palette, breaks out from the artistic
form of operetta and could hold its own with honour in a grand opera".

Strauss commenced his
overture for Der Zigeunerbaron with music based on the orchestral Allegro
moderato passage accompanying the Act 1 Finale (No. 7) ensemble,
"Dschingrah, Dschingrah", a scene in which the gypsies return to
their native region. A flute cadenza leads into the Andantino section of
the overture, comprising thematic material from a later section of the Act 1
Finale, sung by Saffi to the words "Hier in diesem Land Eure Wiege
stand". By way of a lighthearted contrast, the Allegretto moderato
which follows is taken from the Act 2 Trio (No. 9) for Saffi, Czipra and
Barinkay to the words "Darum nur klopfe, klopfe, klopfe, klopfe, klopf’ an
jedem Stein". After a melodramatic intermezzo (marked Piú Allegro
in the August Cranz published piano/vocal score, but otherwise untraceable in
the operetta), Strauss offers for the Tempo di Valse passage the stage
work's principal waltz theme from the Act 2 Finale (No. 13), "So voll
Eröhlichkeit", sung first by Arsena and Mirabella. An Allegro moderato
follows which appears as an orchestral interlude in the Act 1 Finale, and then
comes a 7-bar quotation from Count Homonay's Act 2 'Werberlied' (No. 12 1/2,
"Her die Hand"). Next is heard a 10-bar Andantino section
taken from the chorus "Das wär kein rechter Schifferknecht" from the
Act 1 Introduction (No. l). Strauss now reintroduces as the Tempo di Valse
passage the second part of the Act 2 Finale {No. 13) waltz ("So Voll
Fröhlichkeit"), sung by Arsena and Mirabella to the words "Ja dahin,
dahin lasst uns Alle zieh'n". Gypsy rhythms dominate the final Allegro
sections of the overture, but whereas the first is nowhere traceable in the
published piano/vocal score (and may have been excised before the operetta
reached production), the second directly quotes the powerfully syncopated
orchestral Allegro passage which closes the Act 1 Finale (No. 7).

After the composer
himself had presided over the world première performance of his overture to Der
Zigeunerbaron at the stage work's opening night on 24 October 1885 at the
Theater an der Wien, he left it to his brother Eduard to conduct the first
concert performance of the piece. Accordingly, Eduard featured the overture as
the closing item in the first half of his afternoon concert in the Golden Hall
of the Vienna Musikverein on Sunday 8 November 1885. There are no press reviews
of this performance, but the overture to Der Zigeunerbaron swiftly
became a staple of Viennese concert repertoire and has justifiably remained so
to the present day.

[2] Phönix-Schwingen,
Walzer, Op, 125 (Wings of the Phoenix, Waltz)
Fame came early to the
younger Johann Strauss, and with it the pressures of public adulation. As
conductor of the family orchestra - he had amalgamated his own musicians with
those of his father after the latter's death in 1849 - he was expected to
organise engagements, compose, orchestrate, rehearse and often conduct at two
or three venues on the same day. During 1851 and 1852 his relentless exertions
brought about repeated breakdowns in his health and in December 1852, after an
exhausting concert tour through Germany, he was again taken ill. After several
postponements he reappeared with his orchestra on 16 January 1853, and on the
following day conducted at his benefit concert in the Sofienbad-Saal ballroom.
On this occasion he presented his adoring public with the first performance of
a new waltz entitled Phönix-Schwingen. This title referred not only to
Strauss himself having risen, like the mythological bird, 'from the ashes', but
was also a wry reference to a much-derided contemporary transport enterprise
called 'Phoenix', which had promised faster and cheaper travel than its rival,
the traditional Viennese Fiaker, but which had foundered after only a few days.
Johann's waltz, with its effective, rising motif in the lower strings, is
especially brisk and stylish! The work was dedicated to the pianist, and later
conductor, Hans Guido von Bülow, whom Strauss met in Vienna and whose
compositions he willingly took into the repertoire of the Strauss Orchestra.

[3] Im Krapfenwald'l,
Polka française Op. 336
First performed under
the title Im Pavlovsk-Walde (‘In the Woods of Pavlovsk’), this
now-familiar French polka caused a sensation when the composer first played it
at an open-air benefit concert in Pavlovsk on 6 September 1869 (=25 August
Russian calendar), during his eleventh Russian concert season. The audience
demanded several-encores of the piece.

To add 'local colour'
for his home audiences, the commercially-minded Johann possibly at the bidding
of his Viennese publisher - subsequently retitled the polka Im Krapfenwald and
it was under this name that Viennese audiences first heard the work when Eduard
Strauss conducted it at a festival concert in the Volksgarten on 24 June 1870.
The new title referred to the popular Krapfenwald area of the Vienna Woods,
situated between the scenic village of Grinzing and the heights of Kobenzl and
the Kahlenberg, where Franz Josef Krapf had earlier opened his 'Krapfenwaldel'
tavern.

[4] Lagunen-Walzer
(Lagoon Waltz) Op. 411
A fiasco accompanied
the world première of ohann Strauss's ninth operetta, Eine Nacht inVenedig
(‘A Night in Venice’), when it opened at Berlin's Neues Friedrich
Wilhelmstädtisches Theater on 3 October 1883. As a result, composer and
librettists were forced to effect hurried musical and textual reworkings before
the piece opened in Vienn just six days later. In the familiar surroundings of
the Theater an der Wien on 9 October the operetta triumphed, and many of its
numbers had to be repeated. It is, therefore, all the more regrettable that our
present-day opera houses persistently shun this version of the operetta in
favour of later, and inferior arrangements.

Even before the Berlin
première of Eine Nacht inVenedig, Johann Strauss had arranged -
but had not yet performed - the most attractive waltz themes in the score into
a purely orchestral waltz, which he had entitled Lagunen-Walzer. The
title was derived from the Act 3 "Lagunen-Walzer" (‘Lagoon
Waltz’), sung at the Berlin production by the Duke of Urbino (Sigmund Steiner
in the rôle). The aria commences innocuously enough with the words "Auf
der Lagune bei Nacht" (‘On the lagoon at night’), but shortly afterwards
the hapless tenor was required to sing the lines: "Nachts sind die Katzen
ja gran;/nachts tönt es zärtlich Miau!" (‘At night all cats are grey;/
they tenderly 'miaow' away!’). At this, noted the reviewer for the Berliner
Tageblatt (4.10.1883), "the audience protested with embarrassing
vigour", spontaneously joining in with a chorus of "miaows"!
Unsurprisingly, the text was altered for the next performance and by the time
the operetta reached Vienna the tempo of the aria had been slowed down, the
number had been transferred from the Duke to Caramello (sung in Vienna by
Alexander Girardi) and the words used in Berlin had been replaced by an
entirely different text, utterly devoid of feline references, beginning:
"Ach, wie so herrlich zu schau’n/ sind all’ die liblichen Frau’n!”(‘Oh, how splendid to see/ are all these
lovely ladies!’).

The first perform of
the orchcstral Lagunen-Walzer was at Eduard Strauss's benefit concert on
4 November 1883 in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. The critic for
the Fremden-Blatt (5.10.1883) reported that the concert, at which Johann
Strauss himself was advertised to appear in person, "attracted such a
large audience that the booking-office had to be suspended. Johann Strauss,
received with tumultuous applause, presented a new waltz, put together from
melodies in the operetta ‘Eine Nacht in Venedig’, a charming harbinger of the
Carnival which had to be played three times”. Devotees of the operetta will
doubtless recognize the sources of the themes used in the orchestral
Lagunen-Walzer.

[5] Ritter Pásmá Csárdás, excerpt from the
Ballet Music from the Opera, Ritter Pásmán
On New Year’s Day 1892
the k.k. Hof-Operntheater (‘Imperial Royal Court Opera Theatre’) on Vienna's
Ringstrasse flung wide its doors for the world première of Johann Strauss's
much-publicised foray into the realm of grand opera, the three-act Ritter
Pásmán (‘Knight Pásmán’). To a text by Ludwig Dóczi (1845-1919), based on a
ballad by the Hungarian poet Aranyi János (1817-82), the venture proved in
expensive mistake in terms of the time and effort expended on its creation, and
its unequivocal failure plunged the composer into the very depths of despair.

The sentiments of many critics were echoed
in the cords of Ludwig Speidel, who wrote in the Fremden-Blatt on 3
January 1892: "This opera is more than an aesthetic work, it represents a
negation of the self for the composer; it is a truly respectable achievement
and it commands our greatest admiration, even if it doesn’t please us”. What
did excite the interest of Vienna's journalists, however, was the Act 3 ballet
music, performed in the opera at the royal palace in Hungary shortly after the
wedding of King Karl Robert and his Queen, a Bohemian princess. No one has
given a more evocative account of this music than Vienna's influential 'Music
Pope', the critic Dr Eduard Hanslick (1825-1904), in his review of the opera's
first night. Writing in the Neue Freie Presse on 3 January 1892,
Hanslick offered constructive criticism, as well as general praise for
Strauss's music and orchestrations: "However, we must expressly highlight
the ballet music in the third act. It is by far the glittering crown jewel of
this score. No one but Johann Strauss could have created it! Even though he is
right from the start and in all his being an ‘absolute’ [pure]musician,
that is, in his musical invention, he does not enjoy being bound by the
restriction of words, the text. With the first bars of the ‘Pásmán ballet’ he
suddenly seems to grow wings, and with youthful strength and joyfulness he
soars into the air; libretto and poet vanish from his sight – ‘now I alone am
master!’. The ballet begins – recalling the Bohemian homeland of the Queen –
with a polka, danced in Slavonic peasant costume. The music, of fetching, thrilling rhythms and captivating
orchestral tones, belongs to the most beautiful of Strauss’s dance pieces. After this there follows an exceedingly
graceful and delicate shawl-dance in leisurely three-quarter time – a pleasant
contrast to the preceding polka. The tempo picks up a little and develops into
a waltz in F major, a dance-piece of perfect refinement and poetry. Even though
after the polka the applause of the audience seemed to have no end, after the
waltz a veritable rejoicing broke out. But there as better still to be
expected: a csárdás of energetic national character. How the violins scorch,
how the clarinets sob, how the cymbal pounds in the orchestra! The growing
intensity of tempo, rhythm and fullness of sound with which the piece swells to
its breathless, intoxicating frenzy, is extraordinary. This incomparable ballet
music would on its own be capable of turning any opera into a box-office
success. It awakens in me an often, but vainly uttered old wish: Strauss might
want to present us with a complete ballet. These days he is the only composer
who could do that with very great effect. And with a playfully light touch”.

Almost a year before
the première of Ritter Pásmán, Johann had written to Simrock on 27
January 1891, notifying his publisher that "the ballet, which has become
longer than we had originally planned – lasts over 20 minutes duration. It
contains (I believe I have already informed you of this, though I am not sure)
a short processional march – Polka – Ballabile – Waltz – Csárdás, which last
forms the conclusion”. After Ritter Pásmán was withdrawn from theatre
repertoire, there were only rare opportunities to hear its ballet music
performed complete in concert halls. Among the more significant occasions was a
festival concert in the Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein on 14 October
1894, when the k.k.Hof-Opernorchester (that is, the Vienna Philharmonic), under
Wilhelm Jahn (1835-1900), celebrated the fiftieth jubilee of Johann Strauss's
début as composer and conductor with a concert of the Waltz King's music.
Earlier, Strauss had dismissed "point blank" a suggestion from Joseph
Hassreiter (1845-1940), ballet master of the Vienna Hof-Operntheater, that his Ritter
Pásmán ballet score should be incorporated into a production of Pietro
Mascagni's opera I Rantzau (1892) on 7 January 1893. Johann wrote
indignantly to his brother Eduard: “If my ballet music is strong enough to
support a foreign opera, then it should uphold my own work! On the other hand,
I cannot conceive how Mascagni can be pleased with this procedure. His opera
with another’s ballet music?”.

[6] Bei uns z'Haus,
Walzer (At Home, Waltz) Op. 361
In the summer of 1873
Vienna was literally 'at home' to the world when she opened her doors to a
World Exhibition. The Strauss Orchestra, under Eduard Strauss, was already
committed to concert performances elsewhere, so Johann engaged the Langenbach
Orchestra from Germany to perform as official 'World Exhibition Orchestra'. It
was thus with this body of foreign musicians that Johann conducted the Wiener
Männergesangverein (Vienna Men's Choral Association) in the first performance
of his lilting waltz for male chorus and orchestra, Bei uns z’Haus, on 6
August 1873 at Schwender's 'Neue Welt' entertainment establishment in Hietzing.
The waltz, which Strauss dedicated to Princess Marie Hohenlohe Schillingsfürst,
wife of the Master of the Royal Household, was well received. The Wiener
Abendpost commented: “strauss’s ‘Bei uns z’Haus, like his other choral
waltz ‘An der schönen blauen Donau’, will soon become popular not only ‘at
home’ [= bet uns z’Haus] but also in the whole world”.

The waltz, originally
Sung to Anton Langer's humorous text describing the everyday life of elevated
Society in Austria, is recorded here in its purely orchestral version.

[7] Vergnügungszug
Polka schnell (Pleasure Train, Quick Polka) Op. 281
On 14 November 1837
Austria's first steam railway opened between the Viennese suburbs of
Floridsdorf and Deutsch Wagram. Though public opinion was divided as to the
benefits of this technological innovation, the elder Johann Strauss swiftly
foresaw its advantages in reducing journey times on his concert tours and, in
eager anticipation, composed and performed an Eisenbahn-Lust-Walzer op.
89 (‘Railway Joy, Waltz’) in summer 1837.

As public confidence
in the new trains increased so the railway network expanded, opening up the
Austrian countryside. During the 1860s the Southern Railway, for example,
operated highly popular 'pleasure trains', offering surprise journeys y\Tith
mystery destinations. This attraction provided the younger Johann Strauss with
the title for the lively and descriptive quick polka he composed for the
Association of Industrial Societies' Ball, held in the Redoutensaal on 19
January 1864 - Vergnügungszug (‘Pleasure Train’).

[8] Geschichten aus
dem Wienerwald, Walzer
(Tales from the Vienna
Woods, Waltz) Op. 325
The decorative first
piano edition of Johann Strauss's evocative waltz Geschichten aus dem
Wienerwald carries the composer's respectful dedication to his Highness
Prince Constantin Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst (1828-1896), and the work was
almost certainly given its world première at a private soirée in the prince's
16th-century palace in the Augarten, Vienna, during summer 1868. An undated
letter from that year, written to the composer by Princess Marie
Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, reads: "Dear Sir, The performance of your
beautiful waltz gave me such pleasure recently – that I cannot help asking you
kindly to accept a small memento of the unforgettable evening. It is to remind
you of another of you finely-chiselled masterpieces, by the Blue Danube
– whose sound reminds us all of happy hours. With repeated thanks and greatest
respect. Fürstin zu Hohenlohe". (The nature of the Princess's 'memento' is
unfortunately not known). Since May 1867 Prince Constantin had held the
position of First Master of the Royal Household and had lived in the Augarten
residence with his wife Marie (née Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein), the daughter of
Franz Liszt's long-term mistress Princess Carolyne Wittgenstein. Through
Marie's connections the Augarten Palace, situated on the opposite side of the Danube
Canal from the inner city of Vienna, became a focal point of cultural life in
the Austrian capital. (After the Second World War it became, and has remained,
the home of the Vienna Boys' Choir).

On 22 June 1868 Johann
Strauss conducted a public performance of Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald before
an audience of five thousand at the 'Sommerliedertafel' (Summer Song Programme)
of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (Vienna Men's Choral Association) held in
Karl Schwender's 'Neue Welt' entertainment establishment in the Vienna suburb
of Hietzing. Yet this was no public première: three days earlier in the
Volksgarten, at an 'Extraordinary Novelty Festival with Fireworks, for the
Benefit of Josef and Eduard Strauss' on 19 June, Johann himself conducted the
new work to great applause and was obliged to repeat it four times, A
particularly strong impression was made by the waltz's expansive Introduction
of 122 bars, a rustic tone-poem evocative of the countryside of the Wienerwald,
the wooded eastern foothills of the Alps, situated just north-west of Vienna.
It is curious to reflect, therefore, that at no time in his life did the
composer himself undertake walks in the Vienna Woods – indeed, he expressed a
lifelong fear of climbing even the most gentle of hills!

Through the use of
zither (replaced on this recording by an optional string ensemble) and
Ländler-style rhythms in the Introduction and Coda, Strauss emphasises the
close ties between the Viennese Waltz and the peasant music of Lower Austria. A
zither-player pictured in a vignette on the cover of the first piano edition
further underlines this connection, while the artist also depicts other
commonplace scenes and pleasures to be enjoyed in the countryside – shooting on
a rifle range, a pair of lovers enjoying rural seclusion, and young men bowling
at an outdoor skittle alley.

Listeners familiar
with the posthumous Johann Strauss operetta Wiener Blut (1899) will
recognise the use of the first waltz theme of Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald
in the Einleitung (Introduction) section of the stage work.

[9] Neue
Pizzicato-Polka (New Pizzicato-Polka) Op. 449
In a letter to his
brother Eduard, written on 2 April 1892, Johann Strauss remarked: "I have
sketched a new pizzicato-polka for your concerts in Hamburg. This time it is
made slightly more interesting, in accordance with current taste… It allows of
an affected manner of performance – this is the main thing in a pizzicato
number. For where there is no ‘singing tone’, a success can only lie in what I
would describe as a coquettish performance, since neither piano nor forte offer
sufficient variety in such an unusual piece".

Not to be confused
with the earlier, and more celebrated, Pizzicato-Polka (1869), Johann's Neue
Pizzicato-Polka was presumably given its first performance during Eduard's
engagement at the Hansa-Saal, Hamburg, between 3 April and 5 May 1892, though
no review has yet been traced. Subsequently Johann was to interpolate the piece
into his operetta Fürstin Ninetta (1893) as an entr'acte children's ballet.

[10] Radetzky-Marsch Op. 228. Johann Strauss I
The revolution which flared in Vienna on 13th March 1848 was not the
only threat that year to the stability of the Habsburg monarchy. Following a
series of military engagements during spring and early summer, on 25 July 1848
the 82-year-old Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial army, Johann Joseph Wenzel,
Count Radetzky of Radetz (1766-1858), led his troops to decisive victory over
Piedmontese forces at Custozza. With Radetzky's army in pursuit the Italians
withdrew to Milan, where Charles Albert endured a hostile demonstration before
returning to Piedmont. On 6 August Radetzky entered Milan: three days later
Austria and Piedmont concluded an armistice, with the latter agreeing to
evacuate Lombardy and Venetia.

In Vienna itself,
still gripped by revolution, this significant military event was greeted with
rejoicing by those loyal to the Habsburg monarchy. One such loyalist was the
enterprising Friedrich Pelikan, who functioned both as an official responsible
for selling uncollected items from the government-owned pawnbrokers and as the
owner of the 'Café-Pavilion' on the Vienna Wasserglacis (formerly situated
between the present-day Weihburggasse and Johannesgasse in Vienna's 1st
district, this was cleared away in 1861). Together with the lighting specialist
Carl Hirsch, Pelikan seized upon Radetzky’s victory to organise for the evening
of 31 August 1848 in his 'Café-Pavilion' on the broad, green expanse of the
Wasserglacis a "Grand Impressive Victory Festival, with Allegorical and
Symbolic Representation and Exceptional Illuminations, in Honour of our
Courageous Army in Italy, and for the Benefit of the Wounded Soldiers".The handbills of 31 August advertising that day's celebration also
announced that "Imperial-Royal Court Ball Music Director Johann Strauss
will conduct the music and will have the honour to perform, among several other
piece, also a new march entitled ‘Radetzky-Marsch’, composed in honour of the
great Commander-in-Chief and dedicated to the Imperial-Royal Army".According
to Strauss's friend and fellow musician, Philipp Fahrbach senior (1815-85), the
anticipated march was still not ready on the afternoon of 13 August.
Nevertheless, with Fahrbach's coercion and help, Strauss committed the new work
to paper in just two hours. The success of the Radetzky-Marsch was
evident from the first. The Wiener Allgemeine Theaterzeitzung, reporting
on the first performance in its edition of 2 September, observed: "This
imposing festival, which took place on the Wasserglacis the day before
yesterday, 31 August, was one of the finest this year. […] Particularly the new
‘Radetzky-Marsch’ by Strauss was very well received, and upon tempestuous
demand had to be repeated twice".